Being
thankful is not telling God you appreciate the fact that your life is not in
shambles. If that is the basis of your gratitude, you are on slippery ground.
Every day of your life you face the possibility that a blessing in your life may
be taken away. But blessings are only signs of God's love. The real blessing, of
course, is the love itself. Whenever we get too attached to the sign, we lose
our grasp on the God who gave it to us. Churches are filled with widows who can
explain this to you. We are not ultimately grateful that we are still holding
our blessings. We are grateful that we are held by God even when the blessings
are slipping through our fingers. - Craig Barnes
Gratitude
goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a
pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response
to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be
lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to
acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to
be celebrated with joy. - Henri J. M. Nouwen
We
have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied
and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness
of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and
virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self
sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to
pray to the God that made us. - Abraham Lincoln
Whenever
a man allows himself to have anxieties, fears, or complaints, he must consider
his behavior as either a denial of the wisdom of God or as a confession that he
is out of his will. To be always in a thankful state of heart before God is not
to be considered a high plane of spirituality but rather the normal attitude of
one who believes that "all things work together for good to them that love God,
who are called according to his purpose." - William Law
We
have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for unbelief.
We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow a grumbling, murmuring
heart to disqualify us of our destiny. In contrast, the thankful heart sees the
best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities,
struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress. - Francis
Frangipane
Being
thankful is not telling God you appreciate the fact that your life is not in
shambles. If that is the basis of your gratitude, you are on slippery ground.
Every day of your life you face the possibility that a blessing in your life may
be taken away. But blessings are only signs of God's love. The real blessing, of
course, is the love itself. Whenever we get too attached to the sign, we lose
our grasp on the God who gave it to us. Churches are filled with widows who can
explain this to you. We are not ultimately grateful that we are still holding
our blessings. We are grateful that we are held by God even when the blessings
are slipping through our fingers. - Craig Barnes
Gratitude
goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a
pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response
to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be
lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to
acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to
be celebrated with joy. - Henri J. M. Nouwen
We
have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied
and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness
of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and
virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self
sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to
pray to the God that made us. - Abraham Lincoln
Whenever
a man allows himself to have anxieties, fears, or complaints, he must consider
his behavior as either a denial of the wisdom of God or as a confession that he
is out of his will. To be always in a thankful state of heart before God is not
to be considered a high plane of spirituality but rather the normal attitude of
one who believes that "all things work together for good to them that love God,
who are called according to his purpose." - William Law
We
have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for unbelief.
We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow a grumbling, murmuring
heart to disqualify us of our destiny. In contrast, the thankful heart sees the
best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities,
struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress. - Francis
Frangipane